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80
Thalian Hall, Wilmington, N. C.
Image Courtesy of North Carolina Collection, University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Alfred Moore Waddell
Image: Cape Fear Museum
We are the sons of the men who won the first victory of the Revolution at Moore’s Creek Bridge
… who stained with bleeding feet the snows of Valley Forge … and only left the service of their country
when its independent sovereignty was secured. We are the brothers of men who wrote with their swords
from Bethel to Bentonville the most heroic chapter in American annals and we ourselves are men who,
inspired by these memories intend to preserve at the cost of our lives if necessary the heritage that is ours.
We maintained it against overwhelming armies of men of our own race, shall we surrender it to a ragged
rabble of negroes led by a handful of white cowards who at the first sound of conflict will seek to hide
themselves from the righteous vengeance which they shall not escape? No! A thousand times no! Let
them understand once and for all that we will have no more of the intolerable conditions under which we
live. We are resolved to change them, if we have to choke the current of the Cape Fear with carcasses.
The time for smooth words has gone by, the extremest limit of forbearance has been reached. Negro
domination shall henceforth be only a shameful memory to us and an everlasting warning to those who
shall ever again seek to revive it. To this declaration we are irrevocably committed and true men
everywhere will hail it with a hearty Amen!
Alfred Moore Waddell, Thalian Hall, Wilmington, N. C., October 24, 1898

80
Thalian Hall, Wilmington, N. C.
Image Courtesy of North Carolina Collection, University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Alfred Moore Waddell
Image: Cape Fear Museum
We are the sons of the men who won the first victory of the Revolution at Moore’s Creek Bridge
… who stained with bleeding feet the snows of Valley Forge … and only left the service of their country
when its independent sovereignty was secured. We are the brothers of men who wrote with their swords
from Bethel to Bentonville the most heroic chapter in American annals and we ourselves are men who,
inspired by these memories intend to preserve at the cost of our lives if necessary the heritage that is ours.
We maintained it against overwhelming armies of men of our own race, shall we surrender it to a ragged
rabble of negroes led by a handful of white cowards who at the first sound of conflict will seek to hide
themselves from the righteous vengeance which they shall not escape? No! A thousand times no! Let
them understand once and for all that we will have no more of the intolerable conditions under which we
live. We are resolved to change them, if we have to choke the current of the Cape Fear with carcasses.
The time for smooth words has gone by, the extremest limit of forbearance has been reached. Negro
domination shall henceforth be only a shameful memory to us and an everlasting warning to those who
shall ever again seek to revive it. To this declaration we are irrevocably committed and true men
everywhere will hail it with a hearty Amen!
Alfred Moore Waddell, Thalian Hall, Wilmington, N. C., October 24, 1898